Rectifier encapsulated within coil

ABSTRACT

An integrated rectifier assembly having a coil of wire wound to form a solenoid about a thermoplastic bobbin. The coil of wire has a pair of leads for coupling to an external electrical circuit. A rectifier device is connected to the pair of leads of the solenoid coil to rectify power delivered to the coil. The rectifier device is a silicon rectifier and has two pairs of bifurcated legs which are soldered or otherwise electrically coupled to the electrical socket prongs normally associated with the solenoid winding. One leg of each bifurcated leg pair is coupled to the winding directly and the other leg of each pair is coupled to an electrical socket prong which may then be coupled directly to an external circuit. The entire assembly including the rectifier and its bifurcated legs are encapsulated in an electrically insulating material to protect the unit from shock, corrosion or interference electrically with other conductive members associated with the solenoid assembly.

United States Patent Atherton [54] RECTIFIER ENCAPSULATED WITHIN COIL [72] Inventor: Arden Daniel Atherton, Oak Park, Ill.

[73] Assignee: Eaton Yale & Towne Inc., Cleveland, Ohio [22] Filed: Dec. 10, 1969 1211 Appl. No.2 883,863

5/l968 Schwartz ..3l7/l23 1 Feb. 15, 1972 Primary Examiner-G. Harris Attorney-Hill, Sherman, Meroni, Gross & Simpson I 57 l ABSTRACT An integrated rectifier assembly having a coil of wire wound to form a solenoid about a thermoplastic bobbin. The coil of wire has a pair of leads for coupling to an external electrical circuit. A rectifier device is connected to the pair of leads of the solenoid coil to rectify power delivered to the coil. The rectifier device is a silicon rectifier and has two pairs of bifurcated legs which are soldered or otherwise electrically coupled to the electrical socket prongs normally associated with the solenoid winding. One leg of each bifurcated leg pair is coupled to the winding directly and the other leg of each pair is coupled to an electrical socket-prong which may then be coupled directly to an external circuit. The entire assembly including the rectifier and its bifurcated legs are encapsulated in an electrically insulating material to protect the unit from shock, corrosion or interference electrically with other conductive members associated with the solenoid assembly.

1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDFEB 15 um I N VliN TOR.

RECTIFIER ENCAJPSULATED WITHIN COIL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It has been found desirable in many instances to provide solenoid structures with means for supplying their coils with direct current from an alternating current supply line. Such arrangements insure smoother and quieter operation, and the use of direct current energized coils is well known to those skilled in this art. The usual manner of accomplishing direct current coil operation is to provide a separate alternating current rectifier circuit which operates from an alternating current supply line and which provides the required direct current to the solenoid c'oil.

Such arrangements may prove entirely satisfactory insofar as operating ability is concerned but devices which must be connected to separate alternating current rectifying circuits or to independent DC supply lines are cumbersome and not practical in use. Solenoid assemblies constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention have an alternating current rectifying unit formed integrally with the solenoid coil. With such an arrangement, encapsulation of the coil will envelop the entire rectifying unit along with the coil itself to protect the unit from corrosion, shock or other electrical contacts.

It has been known in the past to form a rectifying unit integrally with a solenoid coil, for instance, as shown in the Schwartz Pat. No. 3,384,787. However, in the Schwartz device, the rectifying unit is placed in a pocket and supported therein, while lead wires are coupled to the terminals of the solenoid coil.

In the present invention, however, the rectifying device is provided with two pairs of bifurcated leads which are rigidly connected to the electrical prongs associated with the solenoid device, and accordingly the entire unit may be readily encapsulated in one step, without first providing an encapsulating pocket for supporting the solenoid and the electrical contacts leading from the solenoid coil.

FIELD'OF THE INVENTION The field of art to which this invention pertains is solenoid coils and in particular to solenoid coils which are normally encapsulated in a plastic or thermoplastic substance and which utilize a rectifying element directly with the solenoid coil, rather than obtaining rectification from an external source.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an important feature of the present invention to provide an improved solenoid coil.

It is another feature of the present invention to provide a solenoidcoil with anencapsulated rectifying device. 7

It is an important object of the present invention to provide a solenoid coil which is low in cost, efficient in operation and effective as a rectifying unit.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a solenoid coil in combination with a rectifying device wherein the rectifying device is interposed between prong portions of electrical socket prongs and rigidly secured thereto as an integral assembly so that the molding operation which encapsulates the coil also encapsulates the rectifying unit.

It is another object of the present invention which provides an encapsulated electrical coil with a reduced number of encapsulating steps to forming the completed coil.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a solenoid coil having electrical prongs for conducting power to the coil and having a silicon rectifier disposed between the prongs.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a ofa preferred embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, although variations and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a top view of the solenoid coil according to the present invention showing the silicon rectifier together with its bifurcated leg portions as secured between opposite ends of electrical socket prongs prior to encapsulation.

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the solenoid coil as shown in FIG. 1 in the same stage of development as that of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows atop view of a completely encapsulated coil of the type illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 shows a sectional view of the coil of FIG. 3 illustrating the manner in which the solenoid coil and its respective bobbin together with the rectifier device and the associated electrical prongs are encapsulated in a single step.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The solenoid coil of the present invention is wound about a plastic bobbin or a bobbin formed of a related'material. The winding itself has' a pair of electrical leads which are connected to stub ends of electrical socket prongs. The stub ends are fixedly secured to the bobbin as a single assembly. Accordingly, at the stage in which the external surface of the coil is not yet encapsulated, the coil and bobbin and stub ends form an integral unit.

A silicon rectifier which is utilized to rectify AC power for delivering DC to the solenoid is provided with two pairs of bifurcated legs. One of the legs of each pair is soldered or otherwise secured to an electrical socket prong or an electrical stem. The other leg of each pair is then soldered to the stub ends which are, as explained, formed integrally with the coil and bobbin assembly. The bifurcated legs are U-shaped portions which ,extend from opposite surfaces of thesilicon rectifier and which have leads formed at the ends of the U for being soldered to the respective stub ends or electrical socket prongs Once the above-described soldering occurs, the solenoid coil assembly is ready for encapsulation. At this point, the entire assembly may be readily encapsulated in one step. This operation can be better visualized by more detailed reference to the drawings.

The electrical solenoid coil 10 as shown in Figures 1 and 2 includes a bobbin 11 which is formed of a plasticlike material and which includes a cylindrical portion 12 and upper and lower flanges l3 and 14 respectively. The upper and lower flanges 13 and 14 together with the cylindrical portion 12 form a bobbin or spool about which an electrical coil 15 may be wound in a well understood manner. The cylindrical portion 12 of the bobbin provides a guide into which an armature may be received and moved as is also well understood in accordance with electromagnetic principles.

Thebobbin 10 is provided with wedge shaped surfaces 16 and 17 which enable an interlocking action to be provided when the entire assembly is encapsulated in an external layer of thermoplastic material.

The electrical leads from the coil 15 extend through the flange 13 of the bobbin I0 and are electrically coupled to a pair of stub ends 18 and 19. The stub ends 18 and 19, as shown in FIG. 2, are encapsulated within the flange 13 of the bobbin 11.

A silicon rectifier 20 is provided to rectify AC power to coupleDC energy to the coil. The rectifier 10 has two pairs of bifurcated legs. The first pair as identified by reference numeral 21 and the second pair as identified by reference numeral 22. The bifurcated legs extend from opposite surfaces 23 and 24 of the rectifier 20 and form U-shaped members which have electrical leads at the end thereof such as the leads 25 through 28.

The electrical leads 26 and 28 may be secured such as by soldering to the plain surfaces of the stub ends 18 and 19, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1.

Also, the leads 25 and 27 may be soldered or the like to electrical socket prongs 29 and 30, also as shown in FIG. 1. The electrical socket prongs may be more commonly referred to as knife blade contacts.

By means of the arrangement shown in FIG. 1, the entire assembly including the bobbin 1l,the coil 15, the stub ends 18 and 19, the rectifier 20 and the knife blade contacts 29 and 30 are integrally assembled and self supporting so that a single molding operation can be performed about the assembly.

The molding operation essentially encapsulates the entire solenoid and rectifier unit as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

In FIG. 4, the coil and its associated bobbin 11 is encapsulated by a cylindrical wall portion 31. The wall portion 31 has a web shaped configuration at opposite ends 32 and 33 to interlock with the web-shaped configurations 16 and 17 as shown in FIG. 2.

Also, the silicon rectifier is completely encapsulated by a plastic portion 34 which is molded thereabout and which is formed integrally with the bobbin 11.

The knife blade contacts 30 are allowed to extend outwardly from a surface 35 of the molded portion 34 so that AC power may be coupled thereto. In this way, the solenoid assembly may be used with a standard AC source without the aid of external space consuming rectifying devices.

As shown in FIG. 3, the one step molding operation provides an entirely integrated unit which is rigid in construction, inexpensive, and free from molding defects.

I claim:

1. An integrated coil and rectifier assembly comprising:

a bobbin for supporting said integrated assembly,

a coil of wire wound on said bobbin in cylindrical form,

said coil of wire having stub contacts with plane faces formed at one end of the longitudinal axis of the coil with each end of the wire having one stub contact thereat,

a rectifier device having two pairs of leads with one of each pair being connected to one of said stub contacts, electrical socket prongs coupled to the remaining leads of said rectifier device,

means encapsulating the coil, bobbin, and rectifier device together with the said leads and contacts, and said rectifer device having bifurcated U-shaped legs wherein the ends of the legs are rigidly coupled between the stub ends of the coil and the electrical socket prongs. 

1. An integrated coil and rectifier assembly comprising: a bobbin for supporting said integrated assembly, a coil of wire wound on said bobbin in cylindrical form, said coil of wire having stub contacts with plane faces formed at one end of the longitudinal axis of the coil with each end of the wire having one stub contact thereat, a rectifier device having two pairs of leads with one of each pair being connected to one of said stub contacts, electrical socket prongs coupled to the remaining leads of said rectifier device, means encapsulating the coil, bobbin, and rectifier device together with the said leads and contacts, and said rectifier device having bifurcated U-shaped legs wherein the ends of the legs are rigidly coupled between the stub ends of the coil and the electrical socket prongs. 